Perry Lefko

Perry Lefko keeps you connected to all the news in the CFL on Sportsnet.ca.

Als coach Marc Trestman is poised to coach in back-to-back Grey Cups.

The Buffalo Bills may have an interest in talking to Montreal Alouettes head coach Marc Trestman about the team's head coaching job, but don't expect it to go very far.

Trestman was thrown in to the Bills' mix after his name surfaced in an online report.

Trestman has proven to be an excellent head coach in the Canadian Football League, taking his team to the Grey Cup last year in his first season -- and is only one win away from repeating it.

His regular-season record is 26-10.

He has grasped the Canadian game quickly and understands how to build an exciting offence.

That said, he has no shot of getting hired by the Bills and the reason is simple: He wouldn't sell in Buffalo.

Granted, Marv Levy, the most successful head coach in Bills' history, developed in Montreal, where he coached for five seasons, made it to three Grey Cups, won two and was named head coach of the year one season. Very few will forget how Levy coached the Bills to four Super Bowl appearances.

But this situation is different. The Bills are at a crossroads in their franchise history, going on 10 years of failing to make the playoffs. The team needs to overhaul its football operations and hire a proven football person to run things - assuming owner Ralph Wilson is ready and willing. Chief operating officer Russ Brandon is the de facto GM. He is a business person, but critics and fans don't believe he has a football pedigree.

Many people in Buffalo long for the return of Bill Polian, the team's GM from 1986-'93, who has been team president of the Indianapolis Colts since 1997. Polian knows how to build a team. Is there a Polian-type figure that could likewise restore the Bills to their glory days?

There is no shortage of head-coaching candidates. Mike Shanahan won back-to-back Super Bowls as head coach with Denver in 1998 and '99. He is expected to receive several interviews in between now and the end of the regular season when there is expected to be many head coaching vacancies, but he may want to run the entire football operations in addition to coaching. Will Wilson be ready to provide that power?

New York Giants' offensive co-ordinator Kevin Gilbride, who has helped shape quarterback Eli Manning, is another hot head-coaching commodity. He has previous experience in Buffalo as an offensive co-ordinator and has been a head coach in the NFL, albeit without much success in 1997-'98 with San Diego. His stock has gone up significantly since then.

One time Bills' linebacker Jim Haslett, who has head coaching experience in New Orleans and St. Louis, is another rumoured candidate. He is currently head coach of Florida of the United Football League. There are other name candidates in the UFL whose names will be bandied about in conversations and the rumour mill.

Trestman came to the CFL following a long stint in the U.S., including various stops in the NFL as an offensive co-ordinator and/or quarterbacks coach. For all the done, he never received a head coaching job in the NFL. It has taken a stint in the CFL to upgrade his stock. There was talk last year the Oakland Raiders may have an interest in him as head coach, but it never materialized.

Trestman's CFL record to this point speaks for itself, but in a city such as Buffalo, which has lived and is now dying with the Bills, this is a time to go big.